Both sides report progress in Savannah harbor deepening mediation

After two multi-day mediation sessions, both sides involved in the Savannah River dredging conflict have broken their silence to report "progress has been made and settlement discussions are ongoing."

The statement, released late Friday by the Georgia Ports Authority, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Savannah River Maritime Commission and the Southeastern Environmental Law Center, indicated another mediation session is tentatively scheduled later this month.

In accordance with court directives, no specific information regarding the mediation was released.

In April of last year, the Corps approved the deepening of the Savannah River from 42 feet to 47 feet to accommodate the large container carriers that will call once the Panama Canal expansion is completed in 2014.

The Corps stated that the project was "economically viable, environmentally sustainable and in the best interests of the United States."

Assistant Secretary of the Army Jo-Ellen Darcy OK'd the project in October, giving it the much-anticipated Record of Decision - the final green light to dig.

But South Carolina, which shares both jurisdiction of the river and a port rivalry with Georgia, said its state permit for the project was improperly used, an assertion that was upheld in South Carolina Supreme Court in November.

The court ordered the two sides into federal arbitration on the issue of deepening the channel.

All parties to the dispute - including the Corps, the GPA, the Maritime Commission and Environmental Law Center, as well as the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, the Savannah Riverkeeper, the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League and the South Carolina Wildlife Federation - have participated in the mediation sessions, as well as the negotiations that followed each.

Meanwhile, Assistant Secretary Darcy has appealed to Vice President Joe Biden, House Speaker John Boehner and ranking members of House and Senate committees to invoke authority under section 404(r) of the Clean Water Act to "specifically authorize" the project.